Ascend | issue 1 | 2005 - Sabre Airline Solutions

96 Pages·2005·6.73 MB·English

A MAGAZINE FOR AIRLINE EXECUTIVES 2005 Issue No. 1
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1 T a k i n g y o u r a i r l i n e t o n e w h e i g h t s
I N T H E B L A C K
A conversation with …
w I N S I D E
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. Joe Leonard, CEO
s Lufthansa benefits from
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b 22 close-in re-fleeting
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ir and Chairman,
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n Cathay’s cargo business
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s 45 drives revenue
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s Frontier Airlines enlists
. 76
c strategic partners
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2ESB3Sw0to1d.we 0u5iSptw5t0ochh . orIsaSlTsstaanasa tbkik iubn HireerHne ,eCg auN T aihDnyrweooiltexriu.kn ifar1iv senae sis7or6lliu0nte9i o2ton sn.ecwo mheights Sabre Airline Solutions and the Sabre Airline Solutions logo are trademarks and/or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre Holdings Corporation. ©2005 Sabre Inc. All rights reserved. Sabre Airline Solutions and the Sabre Airline Solutions logo are trademarks and/or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre Holdings Corporation. ©2005 Sabre Inc. All rights reserved. provleeadnership. mcwoTasAArFapeoornonlsswegtm dreccisai cee w omuseoslnnoenegeo.fodds, a rgn tsar,vclhe seee bhpiartse c’nresaialte ened pnfn fnsaaaoff rgo aai sleafrtlernemekoslotm i a enywpevwetnaoe-iitu icsmetttsunrao iiaootrefgat o rildnt ioaiauevSrhl du lteiaameiannidsrsobb trmp:eWntoreehsoesucnsaesi s.tssiiAcabsnl iogpgoiii ngbrssmrerlg@sioli tetnau tdelos oedief usarau d t cStbottc,htuorfoseerlnu.ectt aoiocmtn.s
Asia/Pacific
Graphic Designer Chris Vasiliou
James Frisbie Senior Vice President
No. 8 Xingyi Road, Room 2204
Graphic Design Manager
Clay Reed Hong Qiao Development Zone
Changning Shanghai 200336 CN
Contributors
Phone: [phone]
Jim Barlow, Hans Belle,
E-mail: [email protected]
Dave Bradford, Hamish Broom,
Jack Burkholder, Michael Clarke,
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Vinay Dube, Greg Gilchrist,
Murray Smyth
Gretchen Greene, Patrick Grubbs,
Kathryn Hayden, Steve Hodges, Vice President
Wes Holloway, Jason Hotchkiss, Somerville House
Carla Jensen, Inna Kizenkova, 50A Bath Road
Hanjo Krause, Craig Lindsey, Hounslow, Middlesex
Marcela Lizárraga, Shari Manning, TW3 3EE, United Kingdom
Mara Owens, Stephen Packwood, It’s time for all-out innovation. And it’s time for proven Phone: [phone]
Mukundh Parthasarathy,
leadership. Mission-critical areas require time-tested E-mail: [email protected]
Michael Sarkis, Sanjay Sathe,
Michelle Schneider, Tim Stuart, solutions. Longer than any other company, we’ve pushed
North America
Kathy Turney, Elayne Vick,
technology forward to deliver vital systems airlines
Graham Whitmarsh
Graham Whitmarsh.
need to stay ahead, to make the impossible practical. Vice President
Awards 3150 Sabre Drive
2004 International Association of Southlake, Texas 76092
Business Communicators Bronze Quill, Working closely with carriers, we’ve developed a portfo-
United States
Silver Quill and Gold Quill. lio of flexible, integrated solutions that can optimize
Phone: [phone]
2004 Awards for Publication Excellence.
operations of all airlines — any size, any business model, E-mail: [email protected]
Reader Inquiries anywhere in the world.
If you have questions about this Latin America
publication or suggested topics for Marcela Lizárraga
future articles, please send an e-mail Learn how together we can put proven leadership to Vice President
to [email protected].
work for you. Call us at 682 605 1000. Or visit 3150 Sabre Drive
Address Corrections www.sabreairlinesolutions.com. Southlake, Texas 76092
Please send address corrections via United States
e-mail to [email protected]. Phone: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Sabre Airline Solutions, the Sabre Airline Solutions logo and
products noted in italics in this publication are trademarks
and/or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre Holdings Corp.
smart. proven. bankable.
All other trademarks, service marks and trade names are the
property of their respective owners. ©2005 Sabre Inc.
All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.
bankable
results.
CFOs and CIOs agree. Software solutions must make a positive financial impact.
Fine-tuning operations and maximizing revenue streams can add millions to your
bottom line — actual, tangible returns that can be taken to the bank.
By working closely with carriers worldwide, we’ve developed a portfolio of flexible,
integrated solutions that can optimize operations for all airlines — any size, any
business model, anywhere in the world.
Learn how we can work together to help you realize bankable results.
Call us at 682 605 1000. Or visit www.sabreairlinesolutions.com.
smart. proven. bankable.
contents 59
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10 On Schedule to 45 A Package 56 Luck of 67 Revenue Integrity:
Maintain Revenue Deal the Irish? A Growing Necessity
Advanced planning and scheduling Cathay Pacific Airways’ cargo busi- Ryanair takes advantage of A low-risk, high-reward integrity
technology enables quick ness produces optimal revenues. ancillary sales, such as in-fight strategy can yield revenue improve-
response to competitive actions. purchases, to grow revenues ments and cost reductions with
50 Under beyond ticket sales. minimal investment.
16 Customer one Roof
Connection A new airline operations center 59 In the 69 A Fare
A strategic customer relationship and emergency procedures enable Black Reaction
management plan helps obtain China Eastern Airlines to promptly AirTran Airways Chairman and CEO Airlines can effectively predict and
and retain customers. respond to costly disruptions. Joe Leonard discusses how his air- react to competitors’ fare actions
line has become one of the most by executing a meticulous fares
16 52 Strictly successful carriers in the industry. management strategy.
Business
Lufthansa and Swiss offer busi-
ness-class-only flights between perspective
Europe and the United States.
22 Reigning in 35 Stop
the Fleet the Leak
Lufthansa realizes monthly financial Airlines can recover significant
benefits up to €5 million by utiliz- amounts of lost revenue
ing close-in re-fleeting techniques by closely coordinating depart-
and combined technology. ments throughout their entire
operation.
26 Power of
Converging Data 37 Turning
By combining several data the Corner
sources, airlines can better evalu- A successful turnaround can
ate performance and make more help airlines overcome substantial
profitable marketing decisions. financial losses, regain profitability
and attain long-term stability.
29 Revenue Realization:
Protecting Revenue 41 Under
A comprehensive revenue Control L
realization plan can help recover Eradicating non-ticketed segments ike many airline executives today, you probably wonder
revenues that otherwise would enables airlines to save money how you can afford to focus on anything other than costs.
be lost due to malpractices or and achieve additional income. As with any executive in any industry, you are challenged
inefficiencies. to keep your teams excited and motivated so they serve
43 From Distribution your customers and create a deeper bond with them, while still main-
32 Unleashing Revenue to Merchandizing taining a cost structure that enables you to compete more effectively.
Management The drive toward deregulating But there’s another side of the coin — revenue. Despite the continued
Realize substantial financial global distribution systems focus on costs, revenue is gaining a renewed amount of executive
benefits by integrating revenue is opening a travel retailing agenda time. Many revenue conversations are driven by innovative
management with other revolution that will transform thinking, which will likely result in some carriers creating new revenue
operational areas. the airline industry. advantages versus their competitors.
67 76
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71 Time 76 Frontier 82 90 Talking Technology
is Money Days Unblocked With … Alan Walker
Time-saving technologies, such as Frontier Airlines enlists the help Airlines in Central and Eastern Open-source technology and
express check in boost productivity of several strategic partners to Europe adjust to address low-cost commodity computing are
and reduce costs while enhancing help effectively accomplish its carrier expansion and currency radically changing reservations
the customer experience. long-term goals. corrosion. systems and travel distribution,
bringing enhanced value to
73 Bringing up 80 Aligning 85 Choosing suppliers and customers.
the Top Line the Pieces its Battles
Airlines can increase annual rev- A comprehensive 11-month effort With the entrance of low-cost
enues by up to 8 percent through by US Airways and its vendors carriers in Asia/Pacific, the region’s
integrated inventory control and helps the airline successfully join network carriers can compete by
revenue management technology. the Star Alliance. analyzing mature LCC markets.
with Tom Klein
Group President, Sabre Airline Solutions/Sabre Travel Network
Some carriers such as Air Canada are “unbundling” their product, rules such as “sum of locals” are routinely broken on many carriers’
enabling customers to choose and pay for services they value most. own Web sites and in the more traditional distribution channels.
Extra charges for economy-class entertainment and cocktails are not Revenue is left on the table in many of these instances. Another trend
new to the industry, and airlines have recently begun charging for food. that seems counter to revenue focus is some airlines’ willingness to
But customers have not yet really understood that they are paying for a participate in Meta search models that seem destined to reduce the air-
more “flexible ticket” or for a pre-assigned seat. These ideas are being line product to a commodity. There are two sides to both of these
tested aggressively, and it seems that customers like the concept once issues, but I think they have potential to drive revenue down over time.
they understand it.
We are proud of our heritage as a company that played a pioneering role
Europe’s Lufthansa German Airlines and some carriers in the Middle in developing technology that has enabled the science of pricing and
East and Asia are betting on good, old-fashion premium service to drive revenue management. Today, through our Sabre® AirMax® Revenue
revenue. Lufthansa’s premium-class service, particularly the first-class Management Suite and through the expertise shared with airlines
terminal at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport, will be difficult for competitors around the world by our consulting team, we continue to focus on help-
to match. The service is designed from curbside check in to deplaning, ing airlines optimize their revenue performance. New ideas and pricing
with terrific in-flight service in between. These carriers have decided that approaches, new products and services, and, yes, some solid revenue
the days of big revenue premiums for high-end service are not over. management principles all need to be in the mix for a carrier to gain
revenue advantage.
New pricing structures are being introduced in the United States.
America West Airlines led with a simplified business model. Other So, while there continues to be substantial executive time spent on the
major carriers such as Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have intro- tough issues that are required to improve airline performance, make
duced similar pricing plans in large portions of their networks. These sure some agenda time is dedicated to the revenue side of the house.
carriers seem to be capturing a greater share of the market and stimu- There is opportunity for improvement and, of course, we would love
lating more demand in their large hub cities where they have to help!
retrenched capacity. While it is too early to tell the impact these new
structures will have, airlines seem encouraged by the results.
There are a few other trends that may seem a bit puzzling — it appears
some carriers have relaxed their revenue management disciplines. Fare
vıew
T H E H I G H L E V E L
News Briefs from Around the Globe
Asia/Pacific Planning and Scheduling Suite to auto- with the best alternate itineraries to help
mate its flight scheduling and route eval- minimize disruptions.
Malaysia Airlinesselected the uation processes. The suite, which can “We strive to offer world-class
Sabre®Movement Manager,akey system help increase operating profits by up to 9 customer service and are constantly look-
within the Sabre®AirOps™Suite,to assist percent, combines core flight scheduling ing at ways to ensure our passengers
with the airline’s integrated operations ini- functions such as scheduling, profitability receive the very best experience every
tiative. Movement Manager,an automated forecasting and analysis, fleet assign- time they book and fly with us,” said Rod
flight display and movement control sys- ment, and slot management through a Butchers, manager of operations delivery
tem to be deployed across a client-server seamless integration with shared inter- for Air New Zealand. “By adding
architecture using a relational database, is faces and database information. Reaccommodation Manager to our exist-
designed to help streamline flight manage- “Hainan Airlines is a dynamic, ing portfolio of Sabre Airline Solutions
ment, increase aircraft utilization and min- growing airline, and we pride ourselves technologies, we aim to deliver a superi-
imize operational disruption. on our ability to move quickly and take or level of service by reducing the prob-
“Integration of schedule plan- opportunities as they arise,” said Yang lems associated with flight disruptions.
ning, ground operations, maintenance, Jianhong, chief marketing officer for “This product is a sophisticated
flight dispatch, flight operations, crew and Hainan Airlines. “Given our futuregrowth system designed to work closely with our
passenger services, flight tracking, and plans, we found we were at a point integrated operations center, helping to
service recovery is a growing trend in this where we needed to automate our deci- improve our day-to-day flight manage-
industry right now, and we are leading the sion-making processes, and the AirFlite ment,” Butchers said. “For example, pas-
field with our iOPS strategy,” said Encik suite has addressed this need. We can senger rebooking can be taken into con-
Tajuden Abu Bakar,senior general manag- now change our schedule times and net- sideration when we decide if a flight
er of technical and ground operations for work and fleet assignments quickly and needs to be cancelled, delayed or diverted
Malaysia Airlines. “Movement Manageris accurately using these tools. We can also to alternate destinations.”
one of the technological solutions for this make better decisions about medium-
mission-critical area as it is built on open- and long-term issues such as fleet mix Thai Airways, through its relation-
systems, non-proprietary architecture. The and new markets to serve.” ship with Thailand-based information
reason we stress the open-systems technology contractor Songkhla Finishing
approach is because it has much greater Air New Zealand became the Co., selected the Sabre® Streamline™
rewards over proprietary technology infra- first airline in the world to utilize the Resource Management Suite to gain
structures, and it is less expensive; easi- Sabre®Reaccommodation Manager,akey operational staff efficiencies and optimal
er for our staff to use, implement and solution within the Sabre®AirOps™Suite, use of its airport ground staff through
maintain; saves costs; and can easily inte- to help simplify and automate the more effective demand planning, shifting,
grate with existing or new technologies.” process of rebooking passengers who employee administration and cross-uti-
have been affected by flight cancellations lization decisions.
Hainan Airlines selected four or delays. The optimization-based process “The Streamlinesuite was select-
main systems within the Sabre®AirFlite™ will assign the airline’s premium customers ed as the clear market leader with the
functionality to enable Thai Airways to can ensure that every seat on our aircraft time period, enabling the carrier to adjust
improve its staff planning, rostering, generates the maximum amount of rev- inventories and prices in response to
administration and utilization processes,” enue across our entire network.” demand to maximize revenue.
said Phengphian Laogumnerd, manager “Restriction-free pricing is one
of Songkhla Finishing Co. “Songkhla was Valuair successfully implemented of the draws of bmibaby,” said Donna
tasked with the challenge of providing the SabreSonic™ Passenger Solutions to Clarkstone, head of business development
Thai Airways with an end-to-end resource further develop and enhance its relation- for bmibaby. “However, traditional revenue
management system that could address ship with the travel trade. The modular management techniques do not work in
the needs of a large, complex airline. I’m architecture and flexible pricing of the the restriction-free pricing market. bmibaby
confident the Streamlinesuite will deliver SabreSonic solutions enables Valuair to required a unique solution designed for the
superior benefits to Thai Airways. use a variety of distribution channels to low-cost market that ensured we met our
“Working with Sabre Airline offer the most advanced travel experi- costs and generated profit. The Low Fares
Solutions gives us access to the very best ence at an affordable price that works Manager offers the first revenue man-
information technology systems on the well with its business model. agement technology that offers this solu-
market,” Laogumnerd said. “We are look- “Our cutover to the SabreSonic tion and is a solid platform for our restric-
ing forward to seeing tangible results at solutions is a significant development as tion-free pricing model.”
Thai Airways, such as improving the cus- this will help the travel trade to not only
tomer service experience through precisely have greater accessibility to our fares but Sabre Airline Solutions launched
planned and optimized staffing levels.” also enhance our capabilities for electronic a new component of the SabreSonic™
ticketing, Internet booking and expanded Passenger Solutions. A technological break-
Malaysia Airlines chose the global distribution system connectivity,” through, SabreSonic™ Revenue Integrity
origin and destination mode of the Sabre® said Valuair Chairman Lim Chin Beng dur- automates the revenue integrity process,
AirMax® Revenue Manager to control its ing an inauguration ceremony. offering airlines flexible, easy-to-use tech-
inventory. With Revenue Manager, the air- nology for protecting existing revenue
line will be able to use schedule, reserva- Europe/Middle streams in a cost-effective way. The new
tions and ticketing data to forecast demand East/Africa technology is not only available for airlines
by service class and determine the optimal utilizing the SabreSonic solutions, it is also
inventory controls at the network level. bmibaby selected the Sabre® offered to non-hosted carriers as a stand-
“Moving to the O&D revenue AirMax® Low Fares Manager for its alone offering to be used with their in-
management controls represents a major advanced restriction-free pricing capabili- house or third-party reservations systems.
step for our airline, and we believe it will ties. Low Fares Manager will enable As part of the new product launch,
give us a significant advantage,” said bmibaby to continue effectively manag- Sabre Airline Solutions acquired London,
Sharifah Salwa, assistant general manag- ing its revenues by accepting or rejecting England-based Lanyon, LTD., a leading
er of network revenue management for passenger bookings based on overall rev- provider of business process management
Malaysia Airlines. “By using Revenue enue contributions. The system will also software to the airline and travel industries.
Manager to move to O&D control, we estimate customer buying behavior by Integration of Lanyon’s DigitalQueue
vıew
T H E H I G H L E V E L
News Briefs from Around the Globe
Revenue Integrity Management software will enable us to continue to provide qual- position while we expand and enter more
with the SabreSonic solutions provides a ity customer service while maintaining competitive markets.
complementary and complete offering in efficient use of our limited gate space at “A growing airline cannot simply
revenue integrity. John F. Kennedy International Airport,” stand still when it comes to technology,”
“Protecting revenues in today’s envi- said Nigel Adams, vice president of cus- Smith added. “Sabre Airline Solutions has
ronment has become increasingly difficult, tomer service for jetBlue. “The system the breadth and depth of smart solutions to
and it is imperative that airlines have tools will augment our deep commitment to meet our changing operational needs and
to help them address any areas that are customer service. By promoting on-time the personnel to ensure success. When
leaking revenue without greatly increasing delivery and efficient use of our resources, we searched the marketplace, we looked
labor costs,” said Gianni Marostica, pres- the technology will help us reach our goal not only for providers with the right tech-
ident of the Airline Passenger Solutions of better service at a lower fare.” nology but for those that were able to be
business within Sabre Airline Solutions. a partner today and in the future.”
“Our new revenue integrity capabilities will AirTran Airways selected two
enable airlines to create and monitor auto- components of the Sabre® Streamline™ American Airlines employed
mated processes as a replacement for Resource Management Suite to achieve SabreSonic™ Ticket, a new, open-systems
repetitive, costly legacy processes.” faster staffing solutions for more dynamic technology that provides an easy and effi-
airport operations.The airline will leverage cient way to manage interline electronic
North America the Sabre® Streamline™ StaffPlan™ and ticketing. The component will provide the
Sabre® Streamline™ StaffAdmin™ systems carrier with a quick and cost-effective solu-
JetBlue will utilize the Sabre® for robust planning, rostering and admin- tion, enabling interline e-ticketing with
Streamline™ GateManager™ and the the istrating its employees. The new technolo- alliance partners and other airlines. The
Sabre® Streamline™ GatePlan™ systems gy will help the airline reduce operational Ticketcomponent addresses the trend for
— two key components of the Sabre® costs, improve on-time performance and carriers to use e-ticketing as both a cost
Streamline™ Resource Management better utilize employee resources. advantage and an additional customer-
Suite— to help reduce operational costs, “The typical approach airlines centric offering and complies with the
improve on-time performance and better take when implementing resource man- recent mandate by the International Air
utilize gate assets. The advanced technol- agement systems is to cut costs,” said Transport Association to achieve 100 per-
ogy will also help the airline assign more Jack Smith, senior vice president of cus- cent e-ticketing by the end of 2007.
feasible, efficient gate assignments to tomer service for AirTran Airways. “At “Interline electronic ticketing is
existing schedules, which means jetBlue AirTran Airways, we are just as con- another step American has taken to
will be able to reduce waiting time on the cerned about customer service and on- enhance the traveling experience by mak-
taxiway, lessening potential fuel burn and time performance as we are with cost ing passenger transfers from American to
maintaining high on-time performance containment, especially as we grow the other airlines more convenient,” said Uzair
and customer service. airline. We already maintain a cost-leader- Nathani, managing director of revenue and
“The Streamline suite repre- ship position, and the Streamline suite planning technology forAmerican Airlines.
sents the one tool in the marketplace that will enable us to continue to keep that “American Airlines continues to make
investments in customer-facing technolo- flight operations product suite at a com- Webster, director of systems operations
gy to enhance the travel experience as pelling price and value point. control for Frontier Airlines. “Using the
well as look for all opportunities to lower “We have made it possible for system, we are able to optimize our crew
costs and work more efficiently. The small, medium and low-cost carriers to schedule while complying with all federal
Ticket component enables us to provide operate in new ways through the use of regulations and labor rules.”
our customers, in a faster and more cost- accessible technology,” said Tom Klein,
effective fashion, the enhanced conve- group president for Sabre Airline Solutions. Gulf Air and Sabre Travel
nience and flexibility they want.” “We have made sure smaller airlines no Network entered a joint venture
longer have to make do with sub-par tech- bringing together the world’s leading global
Hawaiian Airlines renewed its nology or manual processes in today’s distribution system and the vast local exper-
agreement to utilize the SabreSonic™ environment. Our flight operations and tise of Gulf Air to further extend world-class
Passenger Solutions, open-systems tech- crew portfolio offers the low cost and products and services into the Middle East
nology the airline has used since 1994 to quick implementation they require.” region. The agreement includes a five-year
power its reservations, ticketing and contract with Sabre Airline Solutions for the
check-in functions. In addition, the carrier Around the World SabreSonic™ Passenger Solutionsfor pas-
selected two customer care features, senger management as well as additional
which represent the industry’s first true Air Jamaica, Frontier operational software and consulting ser-
operational customer care program, to Airlines, Mesa Air vices from Sabre Airline Solutions. The new
promote a customer-centric environment. Group, Spirit Airlines, Bahrain-based establishment, Sabre Travel
“The open-systems technology of Skyservice Airlines and Network Middle East, expands on the
Sabre Airline Solutions has been a key Atlantic Southeast 15-year relationship between the two
component of our success in establishing Airlines have implemented the companies.
Hawaiian Airlines as the industry leader Sabre® AirCrews® Pairing Optimizer via “The immense challenges facing
with customer service,” said Gordon Linux, a freeware operating system that the airline industry today require a concert-
Locke, former senior vice president of mar- can run on a desktop, to reduce crew- ed collaborative effort with specialist part-
keting and sales at Hawaiian Airlines. “The related costs. The Pairing Optimizer ners in both the public and private sec-
flexibility and adaptability of the SabreSonic enables airlines to generate optimal legal tors,” said James Hogan, president and
solutions will enhance our customer ser- pairings that achieve desired business chief executive of Gulf Air. “Sabre Holding’s
vice even more by providing clean, easy- goals, helping reduce the number of innovative business and technology solu-
to-use data before and after each sale.” crew-related flight cancellations and tions make it a partner of choice in meeting
delays as well as decrease crew-related our requirements and addressing the con-
Sabre Airline Solutions costs by up to 10 percent. stant challenges of the competitive market.
acquired Stockholm, Sweden-based RM “Since we’ve implemented the At the same time, Gulf Air’s regional net-
Rocade to help meet the needs of inter- Pairing Optimizer, we’ve seen tremen- work and strong historic and geographic
national small, medium and low-cost car- dous improvement in our ability to man- ties in the region will enable us to further
riers with an easy-to-use, fully functional age our crew resources,” said George leverage the services we offer.” a
hightech
product savings in system and support-related comparing behavior patterns of flights
costs by providing Internet access; in the future with booking patterns in
Sabre AirMax
Improves airline revenue performance the past and generating reports where
Essentials Reporter
by enabling revenue management ana- the discrepancy between historical and
description
lysts to make informed decisions using future activity exceeds a certain analyst-
Sabre® AirMax® Essentials Reporter is a intelligent data analysis; defined threshold,
revenue management tool that enables air- Offers extensive reporting using a stan- Extensive reporting — Enables ana-
line analysts to generate basic inventory dard set of reports as well as the ability lysts to evaluate information before
performance metrics as well as monitor to create custom reports presenting making decisions by providing a set of
and update inventory controls directly in information in a clear, concise format standard reports as well as the ability to
the reservations system. It provides the for analysis, decision verification and create custom reports, including:
capability to report on several revenue future decision making; • Standard reports — Provides a
management aspects including booking Performs basic revenue management number of standard reports detailing
curves and other pre-departure flight activ- functions without the need for expen- relevant statistics that pertain to rev-
ity, post-departure flight activity and sive, highly data-driven and involved enue management. Both pre- and
exception triggers. In addition to data col- systems for managing inventory; post-departure standard reports are
lection, storage and reporting, it provides Provides an excellent data source for included.
the capability to directly manage inventory any future revenue management deci- • Custom reporting — Incorporates a
in the reservations system. The system sion-support system needs. flexible and intuitive report-creation
consists of a nightly data collection tool that enables analysts to create
features
process, a database, a nightly booking reports on demand. Database layout
curve construction process, an exception Data collection and storage— Captures is designed to enable report output
identification process, a set of standard and stores schedule, inventory and generation with optimal processing
reports, ability to create on-demand ad post-departure data from the reserva- times.
hoc reports and a process to directly man- tions system on a nightly basis (The Real-time inventory management
age inventory in the reservations system. database serves as a centralized repos- — Enables analysts to update invento-
itory of inventory and post-departure ry controls in the reservations system
benefits
revenue management-related data, directly using real-time connectivity
Essentials Reporter offers significant enabling analysts to generate opera- with the reservations system. This pro-
benefits to airlines, including: tional and management reports on an vides analysts the ability to monitor and
Provides a low-cost tool for collecting as-needed basis.), control flights using a single integrated
and storing the appropriate schedule, Proactive exception management— graphical user interface.
inventory and post-departure data Includes an exception reporting module
essential for effective revenue manage- that alerts analysts of any abnormal
ment as well as produces significant booking activity requiring analysis by